At a lightly attended meeting Tuesday evening, the Sonoma Valley Hospital board selected Carl Gerlach as its new Chief Executive Officer. While his actual title is “interim CEO,” Gerlach was frank about wanting the position to be “interim” for as short a time as possible. “If I do my job well, the hospital will be ready to move forward.” Gerlach lives in Marin, just a half-hour away, and his in-laws live on Moon Mountain Road, so he would like the job on a permanent basis, too.
At presstime, Gerlach had yet to inform his partners at HFS Consulting, where he has been a shareholder for four years. That firm has for the last several months been evaluating for the various options for a new hospital, reporting to the Sonoma Valley Health Care Coalition. Funding for HFS and the other consultants hired by the coaliton has been provided by the Hosptial.
Gerlach said that his work for the coalition was completed with the submittal of his final report last week, which found that three options could be workable. “What’s left is explaining the results to the community,” he said.
The hospital board members were unanimuous in their enthusiasm for their selection of Gerlach. As board member Mike Smith summed up afterward, “The guy is experienced – he has vision. He has the charisma to work with other people, and he will pull the community together to start the healing process.”
The other candidates were Wayne Fairchild, former CEO of the Petaluma Valley Hospital, and Kim Hadden, presently Chief Nursing Officer at Sonoma Valley Hospital. During the public portion of his interview, Gerlach reiterated his statement that a small community hospital would always need to be subsidized, unless additional outpatient business could be developed. He agreed with comments made by all the candidates, as well as Evan Rayner, CEO of the community hopsital in Healdsburg, that joint agreements among several hospitals are important to improve operating efficiencies.
There was also general agreement that the Measure B parcel tax was the top priority, that without it there might not be a hospital at all. Gerlach, who starts in his new position on Monday, told the Sun that he would reach out to educate the community about the importance of Measure B. He’ll have the opportunity on Saturday, in his final appearance on behalf of HFS, at coalition presentations from 10 a.m. to noon at Faith Lutheran Church, 19355 Arnold Dirve, and from 2 to 4 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 252 W. Spain St.
